Book Review: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by L. Frank Baum #Ozathon24

Thanks to the #Ozathon24 hosted by Lory at Entering the Enchanted Castle, it was after years that I cracked open the covers of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), a book I enjoyed as a child (and have read several times) and the only Oz book I knew back then. Reading it I realised how many little details I’d forgotten.

Of course, this is a familiar story, that of a little girl Dorothy and her little dog Toto, who live with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry in a small house on the Kansas prairie. A cyclone strikes and the whole house carrying Dorothy and Toto is carried away to the wonderful and magical land of Oz. Here Dorothy is welcomed by the munchkins whose country she lands in, especially so because her house has landed right on and destroyed the Wicked Witch of the East. While the land of Oz is pretty and welcoming, Dorothy does want to go home, and the only way is to travel to the Emerald City ruled by the Wizard of Oz! And she can get there if she follows the yellow brick road! Along the way she meets the Scarecrow who yearns after brains, the Tin Woodman who wants a heart and the cowardly Lion who wants courage and all three join her hoping the Wizard with give them these and help Dorothy back to Kansas. The journey isn’t an easy one and many challenges must be faced. At the Emerald city though, Oz who appears to each of the friends in different fearful forms tasks the four with getting rid of the Wicked Witch of the West before he will help. And so starts the next leg of their adventure. Do they manage to destroy the witch? Are their wishes fulfilled?

The first thing that stood out to me as I started reading was the contrasts between Kansas and Oz, an element that in my mind was associated with the Judy Garland film—dull, grey, (almost) ‘sad’ Kansas where not only the atmosphere but even Uncle Henry and Aunt Em have turned ‘grey’ in appearance and in character, contrasting with the green, pretty and colourful land of the munchkins, with everything in blue. But the contrasts stretch further too, in that from an uneventful (besides the cyclone), pretty much monotonous existence in Kansas, the time in Oz is one of constant adventure, and then again, from an innocent child, Dorothy is proclaimed (even if she remains innocent) the destroyer of the witch! Another detail I’d forgotten was that the Good Witch of the North whom she meets in munchkin land is an old and white-haired lady unlike the pretty Glinda, the good witch of the south who appears throughout the film.

It was interesting how in L Frank Baum’s introduction to the book (I learnt he had one for each entry of the series he wrote), he mentions wanting to write a story for entertainment alone, for children now learn ‘morals’ from modern education. This had me thinking about an article I’d read some years ago comparing American children’s literature (classic writings) with English ones and commenting on how the former were focused largely on morals/moral-education while the latter primarily took children into fantasy territory. Perhaps Baum was trying to do something different in that sense, seeking to provide pure enjoyment for his audiences.

Yet for all that, his story does have a message to give, shown more than told, that one has everything one needs within oneself and needn’t look to external sources to get it, a message that even us adults need a reminder of time and again. The Scarecrow is seeking brains (‘Brains are the only think worth having in the world’) yet it is his thinking that gets them across a large ditch; the Tin Woodman wants a heart, yet is able to weep for every creature he harms, and the Lion does stand up to the wicked Witch of the West refusing to be enslaved.

Adult me though couldn’t help contrasting the Tin Woodman’s heartbreak at the beetle he treads on by mistake and extending help to the queen of the field mice, while being quite ruthless in hacking down the wolves sent to attack them or the wildcat hunting the queen mouse. Of course, there is the distinction between forces of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in these instances, but somehow the actual hacking or throttling of the crows I found the type of violence I am now uncomfortable with (irrespective of justification) unlike say the Wicked Witch simply melting away.

The imaginativeness of Baum’s world on the other hand, I very much loved whether it is the land of the Winkies or of the Munchkins, or the Emerald City even if it was all make believe, and the hammerheads, the winged monkeys, even the kalidahs. My favourite of the lands though is the Land of the China People, which I’ve always loved—with its China sheep and cows and delicate, pretty people. The image of this part of the story I have in my mind if from an animated version of the story though for the others, I always picture the characters from the Judy Garland film. I’d also forgotten the little wordplay that Baum works in when the Scarecrow gets his ‘Bran new’ sharp brains made of bran and pins and needles.

One can’t help think back to the film off and on when reading and for instance when Dorothy and the Scarecrow are entering the forest, I had ‘Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!’ playing in my head! ‘There’s no place like home’ though appeared at the start of the story though from the film I always associated it with Dorothy’s journey back. Her surname, ‘Gale’ though appears to come from the film, where the ‘cyclone’ of the book has turned into  ‘tornado’.

From the book alone, it doesn’t appear that Baum intended to write others creating a ‘series’ for it is nicely wrapped up for all the characters, yet he went on to write so many more. Since I’ve only read the next book in the series before, I am interested to see what comes ahead and whether and how things link up to this first book. So pleased Lory is organising the Ozathon!

(Edition read: Tor Books, 1993, pp. 171, personal copy)